[blml] Law 25A

[Sven Pran]

> On Behalf Of WILLIAM SCHODER
..............
> > ISTM that L25B exists for the specific purpose of providing some relief
> > to a player who has bid "absentmindedly" rather than "inadvertently".
> 
> 
> You are right in both of these paragraphs.  25B came about because Edgar
> (l990 Geneva, WBF) did not see his partner's opening of 1 spade on the
> bidding tray (screens in
> use- tray not fully passed across) and passed with 10 HCPs 4 spades, and a
> singleton.  When the tray was moved after his opponent had passed, he
> discovered his MISTAKE.  He
> now wanted to change his call, and the TD, in consultation with me, said
> no.
> This was protested to a committee of Rules and Regulations sitting jointly
> with the Laws Committee, since it addressed a matter of application of
> Laws
> and Regulations. The committee upheld the TD ruling.
> 
> Thereafter we now were faced with the "Bandaid" change of 25B giving those
> who are
> absentminded, ill-informed by their own actions, lazy, and realizing,
> after-the-fact that what they had done was going to get them a big fat
> zero
> a chance to stem the bleeding to somewhere between zero and average minus.
> It goes along with the philosophy that you no longer need to suffer the
> full
> consequences of making mistakes in a game which is based on avoiding
> making
> mistakes.
> 
> Kojak
> 
> 
> 
> It started (nah -- continued and accelerated) the slide to always look for
> something to fix bad biding, play, and bridge.


I suppose the following WBFLC minute from Bermuda January 11th 2000 still
should be of interest?

Quote
6. Mr. Schoder had indicated a desire to see Law 25B removed from the laws.
He asked the committee to consider the question. Mr. Martel said that in its
current form Law 25B had been devised as a solution to a particular problem,
but in the outcome "the cure is worse than the disease". There was
considered to be a difficulty in finding suitable words to express this in
the laws.
Unquote

Regards Sven